The Wendigo

There is no easy way to tell the tale of facing a wendigo. I won't give my name away so my name will be Alex due to the severity of this story. Before you read on know one detrimental detail, this story is 100 percent true without over-exaggeration. So please without further wait, let's begin my horrifying yet eye-opening experience.

On September 13th of 2016 I was driving up the Big Horn Mountains above Buffalo, Wyoming. Just like every trip, I packed accordingly: 2 bottles of water, 6 Nutrigrain Bars and my loaded handgun. I drove up 4 to 5 times per week never worrying on ghost stories or monsters. As far as I knew, these mountains were harmless besides predators seldomly seen and weather interference.

But something in me changed on September 13th. Instead of going to my usual neck of the woods, I went to a remote camp site known as Hettinger, 15 miles up from town. It's a beautiful place where, if you cross the fence, you can climb to a peak and oversee for days. As I was looking over the majestic snow covered landscape, I saw a tall slender figure marching through the blanket of powder.

Normally I would drop it as a hunter on the move but Hettinger was far from any known hunting locations. To this day I wish I would have packed up and left, I wish I didn't peek through my binoculars but sometimes securing curiosity is the only safe option.

I'll never let myself forget the moment I peered through the cold glass over the winter plateau. As I focused my lenses and the figure came to clarity, I dropped behind the rocks. It was looking back at me... As if it could see me. That would be impossible for a human, I was 1,000 feet away or more hidden by a rock and within the tree line.

I peeked back up, using only the top of my head to look again. It was just standing there sniffing the air looking at me. My heart sank and I couldn't move. I was frozen in fear. About 200 feet behind me was a small rock cave big enough to squeeze into and deep enough to hide in the dark. I slowly made my way, inching backwards. I took one last look and noticed it was sprinting towards me.

I moved as fast as possible to the hole and tucked in. The moment I made it, the creature was standing feet from where I was. Its skin was damp in appearance and gray. It also had long hands and fingers to match that turned to dagger-like nails. I cupped my mouth to hide my breathing which became a challenge due to the cold, but as I moved my hand a rock tumbled. I looked down at the rock just to look back up and see its cold eyes peering through the hole.

It was almost as if it couldn't see me but it knew something was there. I stood still as a statue. It reached in, almost grasping my pack. After 5 minutes of forever, it gave up and took back to sniffing. I waited there in shock and a daunting weight of fright casting over me every moment in passing.

It quickly got dark as night fell and it finally wondered off. I waited until I felt assured to poke my head out. I took a look around and saw nothing, not even a footprint.

I took time in watching my steps to stay quiet and made my way back down to my car. I used my key to unlock it rather than using the button lock. I got in and sank down and took a last look around. I finally found courage to crank my car and began to drive down the trail to the main highway. As I was just about turned around I saw it... It stood as tall as the trees and stared at me. I hit the gas and fishedtailed but I made it. As I reached the main road it was in pursuit and was keeping up. After a few miles I looked back and it was gone.

To this day I haven't been back, not even to that region of the mountains. Looking it up I found several myths about the creature and its origins, I believe you should to... It's quite unique. Stay safe and know the world is far more vast than we know.